Typemock provides unit testing tools for developers worldwide, to make unit testing easy. We are passionate about helping developers, giving them the easiest and best tools to ensure code integrity. We're committed to developing software thate delivers the benefits of quick and east unit testing to .NET developers around the globe - making sure you get quality code, with the minimum amount of debugging, and maximizing your efficiency.

Dave works as Chief Architect for .NET Development at Ridgian Limited, a privately owned software house based in Central Birmingham. Ridgian are a Microsoft Certified Partner and specialise in Business Intelligence Solutions and Custom Software Solutions. He is very active in the Microsoft community speaking at DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper conferences, and at numerous User Group meetings around the country on such topics as SQL XML, SQL 2005 Security, Regular Expressions and his favouritte technology XSLT and XPATH. He has recently published articles on SQL Server 2005 Security in International Developer Magazine and on Vista and Office 2007 in the Microsoft Beta Newsletters.

My first encounter with any form of software development was with a ZX81 in 1982. However at four years old, I was just typing what Dad said. I guess I was an early starter in ‘Pair programming’!

Since then I’ve always had a hand in computing, both software and hardware. I’ve setup a few companies, my first at 17, system building and my first websites in the late 90's. I’ve helped develop around 50 websites over the last 10 years from KP’s portfolio in 1998 to various charities in 2000 (NCDL, WaterAid & GreenPeace Int.) to a number of private .COM ventures (article27 & blue-wire). I had a hand in helping to deliver Vodafone’s ground-breaking M-Pesa project which started in 2007, a mobile money transfer platform.

Most recently, my role involved setting up Visual Studio Lab Management for software teams across CGI Logica for their Retail clients.I have also delivered a number of training courses for customers in Retail, Banking, Insurance and Software consultancies, covering Microsoft MVC, WPF/Silverlight and TFS Lab Management.

I’ve been known to fly on occasion at Cambridge airport, though I haven’t got anywhere near a PPL yet (I’m not sure if I trust myself!)

Rachel Hawley

As far as technology goes, if it has more than one button I am lost. In a sea of technical content and emerging technologies, I am adrift on a raft made only from DevExpress USB drives and two empty Haribo packets.

However, fortunately for me I enjoy trying to learn about what's new and exciting in the developer community from a huge group of people who are infintely more knowledgable than I.

I've been working in the technology sector since I graduated in 2004, with a near useless degree for this line of work (a Masters in Experimental Phonetics ... on the off chance that you're interested). I first caught a glimpse of what this fast-paced industry might offer me when I worked for Autonomy, and following that I discovered a fantastic developer community when I moved to Red Gate Software. Now I give out the warm fuzzies to DevExpress customers, while making sure that the community that welcomed me in is provided for and supported by as many advocates as I can find behind the scenes.

Chris Hay

Chris is regularly caught by his wife browsing internet sites at 2.00am in the morning. Sadly he is always looking at .NET sites rather than the haunts frequented by his peers.

Chris has worked on various large projects and is specialised in C#, ASP.NET, AJAX, SQL and various other acronymns. Having always tried to keep at the front of the technology curve, i guess it is time to share that knowledge around a little.

Simple tip, never mention Silverlight infront of him (if you are in a hurry).

You can catch him on his blog http://silverlightuk.blogspot.com

Ian Johnson

I have worked in a number of languages from the virtually unknown Visual Objects through to currently developing in C# with MVC and building RESTful (*cough* not quite) APIs.

Most of the time I have some pet projects, that rarely finish, that allow me to play with new technologies. From a technology standpoint, I am currently interested in developing some mobile applications (especially some cross-platform apps) that are talking back to cloud services.

I spent a lot of time evangelising agile/lean processes and want to get more people at least understanding their processes, identifying the bottlenecks and trying to "inspect and adapt".

John McLoughlin

I work for as a freelance software guy based in Southampton and have been cutting code for over 15 years. I specialise in C# & .NET, and have recently started experimenting with HTML 5. You'll often see me lurking around at various MSDN and Community events.

Richard Costall (MVP, MCSD.NET) has over 22 years development experience and works for 1st Software, a Microsoft Gold Partner, and the UK's leading software solution for Financial Adviser and Intermediaries, designing and implementing IFA applications in the financial services sector. Previously specializing in VB, XML/XSLT, COM, ASP and MSMQ, Richard now lives and breathes the awesome world of .Net and in particular ASP.NET and Silverlight 2.0. Richard spent 5 1/2 years as the Midlands regional coordinator for VBUG (Visual Basic User Group) before co-founding NxtGenUG, the innovative UK user group for Microsoft Technologies.

Richard has written articles for publications such as ASP.NET Pro and International Developer Magazines and also co-authered the Apress title Professional MSMQ. He speaks a local user groups, Microsoft Conferences/Product launches, TechED Europe and the hugely successful DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper Events.

When not in .Net land, Richard enjoys relaxing at home with his wife and two sons, playing on the XBOX 360 or ultimately jetting off to Walt Disney World, Florida, for a trip on the Tower of Terror.

Dave McMahon

Dave works as Chief Architect for .NET Development at Ridgian Limited, a privately owned software house based in Central Birmingham. Ridgian are a Microsoft Certified Partner and specialise in Business Intelligence Solutions and Custom Software Solutions. He is very active in the Microsoft community speaking at DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper conferences, and at numerous User Group meetings around the country on such topics as SQL XML, SQL 2005 Security, Regular Expressions and his favouritte technology XSLT and XPATH. He has recently published articles on SQL Server 2005 Security in International Developer Magazine and on Vista and Office 2007 in the Microsoft Beta Newsletters.

John Price

My background is in Point of sale for the retail sector, in particular petroleum.

I have been working as a developer as long as I can remember, in fact my first development job was as 15, while I was still at school!

I worked for 10 years at Wella GB as a developer developing systems for hairdressers before doing 4 years designing hardware for various platforms. I even had a hand in designing a 286 motherboard!

I then worked for Meggitt Petroleum Systems as a Technical Architect designing Point of Sale terminals and Back Office systems for major oil companies across the world. I have been lucky enough to visit 26 countries as diverse as South Africa and Japan doing this.

I developed some desktop and enterprise level applications using an obscure 4GL called Omnis.

Since then I have been working with .NET since its inception and was part of the beta program for 1.0 and have built a web site in ASP.NET

Numerous projects later I have sepcialised in media devices for XP and XP embedded and media center, along with mobile applications for devices ranging from symbian hardware through Pocket PC to Windows Mobile 6.5, and on into Windows Phone 7, and Windows versions, including authoring articles on MSDN about Search systems.

I am also a pilot and am fortunate to have an aeroplane at Coventry airport, at the flying club. I can usually be found on the airfield most Saturdays either flying the 'plane if the weathers good, or flying the bar if its not!

If you would like to read more about what I get up to, you could check out my blog at www.johnnysblog.net

I'm often found browsing the internet at all odd hours, unfortunately for you filthy lot, it's more often than not, looking at .Net sites! I've worked on a variety of projects, specialising in C#, ASP.NET, AJAX & SQL. Having always tried to keep at the forefront of technology, I thought it time to share my passion by organising these meetings.

Ryan O'Neill has been working with computers since 1988 when they first started falling over due to an inability to cope with the apostrophe in his surname (something that occurs alarmingly too often even now). He considered changing his surname to O';DROP DATABASE master;'Neill to teach them a lesson but prefers home cooked food (as opposed to prison cuisine).

He is jolly chap with a dry sense of humour. Bill Gates looks like Ryan and is often mistaken for him (something that tends to annoy Bill).

He used to own a company in the south east but sold up and moved to Herefordshire for a slower pace of life with his family where they have a cottage, a Land Rover, Border Collie dog and some large wellies (that leak). Working on systems from low level hardware, real-time oil and gas emergency safety and factory control through to 'noddy' applications for the insurance industry he has settled into Windows and web development with a lot of database work thrown in. Ryan now works from home over the internet with a crew of other developers, mostly on databases, web sites, .Net clients and occasional low level drivers (shudder).

Richard Wilde

Richard Wilde is the owner of wildesoft.net in Bromyard. He has been developing Internet Applications since 1996 so some might say he knows a bit, but he will tell you he knows nothing. He only uses Microsoft Technology these days as he thinks other systems lack that bit of finesse!. He has worked in the past as a development manager for a local company where he had to spend most of his time stopping the designers and developers jumping on each other. He has worked in small/medium sized teams. He has developed many different kinds of internet sites that may or may not work!

Currently a Technical Architect in the UK, mainly producting educational software and line of business applications for education related government departments and commercial companies, with a sprinkling of exciting stuff like Microsoft Surface thrown in for good measure! Previous to this I ran my own business for around 4 years, before deciding that monthly management reports are far less interesting than they sound!

These days I generally work in C# and SQL, but in the past I’ve developed in everything from Assembly Language (68000 and x86) through to VB.Net/C#, with plenty of others inbetween. I’ve also done my time in the support/engineering side of IT, so I’m pretty much a geek through and through :-) I’m a firm believer that reading and “best practices” are no substitute for using your brain!

If you want to contact me, you can do so from my blog at http://www.grumpydev.com/

Andy Wilkinson

I have been involved with the support side of IT for over 10 years and currently do 3rd line support at Civica for our in-house products and SQL server. The job incorporates development as and when it can fit into my busy support life!

Developement has always been an interest of mine, from my first steps in the wonderful Turbo Pascal 7 to the heady heights of .Net 1.1 and 2 with SQL 2000/2005 backends.

I am hoping the user group will give me an insight into what's going on in the industry and help to drag me up to date!

Richard Hopton started his long-term relationship with development at the tender age of 8 when writing text adventure games on the BBC at school, followed by several years of dabbling in Amiga games and demos. He moved onto writing applications in Delphi until 2008 when C# became his language of choice, and .NET his new spiritual home.

Richard now works as a development team leader for SalesAchiever, an independent software company specialising in producing a market leading industry-specific CRM solution written in C# and WPF.

Paul Milburn

Been freelancing for last 8 years. Recently worked on BI projects and historically on ASP.NET based projects using C# and SQL.

I have been developing software since 1996 starting with some good old MS Access database work using VBA. I soon moved onto using Borland C++ builder and Delphi until eventually settling on using .NET and C# in 2003 and still loving it.

I run a software development company, Conjurer Solutions Ltd based in Bournemouth specialising in the delivery of hosted content management systems, enterprise level software development consultancy and Agile coaching. I enjoy all aspects of software development and I believe that good communication is the key to the successful delivery of projects.

Outside of software development I have a keen interest in sleight of hand magic, hence the name of the company :-). You can check out my blog at http://richallen.blogspot.com.

John McLoughlin

I work for as a freelance software guy based in Southampton and have been cutting code for over 15 years. I specialise in C# & .NET, and have recently started experimenting with HTML 5. You'll often see me lurking around at various MSDN and Community events.